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Merge series "slab: support for compiler-assisted type-based slab cache partitioning" from Marco Elver. From the cover letter [6]: Rework the general infrastructure around RANDOM_KMALLOC_CACHES into more flexible KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES, with the former being a partitioning mode of the latter. Introduce a new mode, KMALLOC_PARTITION_TYPED, which leverages a feature available in Clang 22 and later, called "allocation tokens" via __builtin_infer_alloc_token() [1]. Unlike KMALLOC_PARTITION_RANDOM (formerly RANDOM_KMALLOC_CACHES), this mode deterministically assigns a slab cache to an allocation of type T, regardless of allocation site. The builtin __builtin_infer_alloc_token(<malloc-args>, ...) instructs the compiler to infer an allocation type from arguments commonly passed to memory-allocating functions and returns a type-derived token ID. The implementation passes kmalloc-args to the builtin: the compiler performs best-effort type inference, and then recognizes common patterns such as `kmalloc(sizeof(T), ...)`, `kmalloc(sizeof(T) * n, ...)`, but also `(T *)kmalloc(...)`. Where the compiler fails to infer a type the fallback token (default: 0) is chosen. Note: kmalloc_obj(..) APIs fix the pattern how size and result type are expressed, and therefore ensures there's not much drift in which patterns the compiler needs to recognize. Specifically, kmalloc_obj() and friends expand to `(TYPE *)KMALLOC(__obj_size, GFP)`, which the compiler recognizes via the cast to TYPE*. Clang's default token ID calculation is described as [1]: typehashpointersplit: This mode assigns a token ID based on the hash of the allocated type's name, where the top half ID-space is reserved for types that contain pointers and the bottom half for types that do not contain pointers. Separating pointer-containing objects from pointerless objects and data allocations can help mitigate certain classes of memory corruption exploits [2]: attackers who gains a buffer overflow on a primitive buffer cannot use it to directly corrupt pointers or other critical metadata in an object residing in a different, isolated heap region. It is important to note that heap isolation strategies offer a best-effort approach, and do not provide a 100% security guarantee, albeit achievable at relatively low performance cost. Note that this also does not prevent cross-cache attacks: while waiting for future features like SLAB_VIRTUAL [3] to provide physical page isolation, this feature should be deployed alongside SHUFFLE_PAGE_ALLOCATOR and init_on_free=1 to mitigate cross-cache attacks and page-reuse attacks as much as possible today. With all that, my kernel (x86 defconfig) shows me a histogram of slab cache object distribution per /proc/slabinfo (after boot): <slab cache> <objs> <hist> kmalloc-part-15 1465 ++++++++++++++ kmalloc-part-14 2988 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ kmalloc-part-13 1656 ++++++++++++++++ kmalloc-part-12 1045 ++++++++++ kmalloc-part-11 1697 ++++++++++++++++ kmalloc-part-10 1489 ++++++++++++++ kmalloc-part-09 965 +++++++++ kmalloc-part-08 710 +++++++ kmalloc-part-07 100 + kmalloc-part-06 217 ++ kmalloc-part-05 105 + kmalloc-part-04 4047 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ kmalloc-part-03 183 + kmalloc-part-02 283 ++ kmalloc-part-01 316 +++ kmalloc 1422 ++++++++++++++ The above /proc/slabinfo snapshot shows me there are 6673 allocated objects (slabs 00 - 07) that the compiler claims contain no pointers or it was unable to infer the type of, and 12015 objects that contain pointers (slabs 08 - 15). On a whole, this looks relatively sane. Additionally, when I compile my kernel with -Rpass=alloc-token, which provides diagnostics where (after dead-code elimination) type inference failed, I see 186 allocation sites where the compiler failed to identify a type (down from 966 when I sent the RFC [4]). Some initial review confirms these are mostly variable sized buffers, but also include structs with trailing flexible length arrays. Link: https://clang.llvm.org/docs/AllocToken.html [1] Link: https://blog.dfsec.com/ios/2025/05/30/blasting-past-ios-18/ [2] Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/944647/ [3] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250825154505.1558444-1-elver@google.com/ [4] Link: https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-a-framework-for-allocator-partitioning-hints/87434 [5] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260511200136.3201646-1-elver@google.com/ [6]
Linux kernel ============ The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware, system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software. 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